We already featured KING’S X classic debut album 1988’s “Out Of The Silent Planet” in the very good Rock Candy Records remastered version.
However you need to listen to this Metal Blade Limited Edition 2-LP vinyl reissue from 2017, an awesomely sounding pressing dividing the album in 2 LP’s to give the music enough room to breathe, and the results are excellent: warm, rich, and full-bodied sound.
Back in 1988, the emergence of Texan based power trio King’s X resonated through the music industry like a breath of fresh air. Suffocating under a barrage of hair metal bands, the rock scene was fast stagnating but it was King’s X who rode into the fray like knights in shining armor, unleashing a stylistically innovative and brilliant new sound.
King’s X made its mark by being different. Instead of feel-good tunes, they took a more artistic approach by fusing intricate songwriting and a wide array of musical styles with an image on the streetwise side of things.
It begins with vocals in that instead of a high-end crooner reaching for the stratosphere or a strutting around David Lee Roth type, King’s X includes two equally good and complementary vocalists. Bassist Doug Pinnick, on one hand, brings a soulful style heavily rooted in heart and emotion and has invited comparison to the late Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) as a result.
Guitarist Ty Tabor, on the other, highlights a smooth and even middle-register presence. Pinnick handles majority of lead vocal duties, while Tabor plays a co-lead vocalist role, with the two occasionally trading off within the same song in this capacity.
It is musical direction where King’s X brings that uniqueness in question. The group offers an amalgamation of just about all forms of hard music, including heavy metal, straightforward hard rock, progressive rock, funk, blues and even occasional doom tendencies.
Such an all over the map style propensity, obviously, helps make it problematic to pigeonhole the group in terms of any one specific segment or genre. Hence, we find a label of “technical metal with an emotional edge” proves sufficient.
Music critics, at the same time, encounter the same challenge when it comes to classifying King’s X.
One described the group as “driving, melodic rock, bolstered by intricate layering (and) rumbling 12-string bass textures (that will) appeal to metal, alternative, progressive and mainstream fans alike”, while another suggested a “(merging of) Black Sabbath styled riffs, Beatlesque harmonies and the soul of Sly and the Family Stone”.
A reviewer back in the day even went to far as to state that “King’s X sounds like what Rush might have sounded like, had they remained a metal band and fired Alex Lifeson in favor of Stevie Ray Vaughan”.
The fact is all of the above apply to varying degrees in painting an accurate picture of the at times eclectic but always creative King’s X sound.
Our overall feeling is that “Out Of The Silent Planet” represents the heaviest and most consistently guitar driven of the early King’s X releases. It would not be inaccurate, for instance, to label the album metal and hard rock keeping in mind the musical divergences the group brings to the table.
The LP runs the gamut from the ploddingly powerful and at times doom-ish tinctures of “In The New Age” and “Visions” to the high energy and hook based mentality of “King” and “Shot Of Love”. Close listen to guitarist Ty Tabor’s delectable soloing on these four reveals why he was one of the most versatile axeman from the era.
In between, the band delivers a pair of slower tracks in which it makes use of big, soulful vocal harmonies, moving and ethereal based ballad “Goldilox” and laid back and easy going “Far, Far Away”. Maintaining the moody disposition are “Wonder”, interweaving churning guitars with sitar, and “What Is This?”, darker and bass guitar driven in upholding the same heavier underpinnings.
Time changes presents themselves on “Sometimes” and “Power Of Love”, both starting at a measured and bottom heavy pace only to break out for explosive choruses that successfully reach for a more accessible sound.
Rated by the famous Kerrang! magazine with ‘5 K’, King’s X did it even better with following masterpiece album titled ‘Gretchen Goes To Nebraska’, but “Out Of The Silent Planet” is a terrific piece of work as well. This is one of the finest and most innovative hard rock / metal albums from the Eighties, ahead of its time.
This vinyl rip sound quality is superlative.
Highly Recommended
Tracklist:
A1. In the New Age 5:24
A2. Goldilox 4:42
A3. Power of Love 4:38
A4. Wonder 4:12
A5. Sometimes 3:42
B1. King 3:03
B2. What Is This 3:49
B3. Far, Far Away 4:17
B4. Shot of Love 3:16
B5. Visions 5:30
Band:
Doug Pinnick – bass, lead & backing vocals
Ty Tabor – lead & rhythm guitars, lead & backing vocals
Jerry Gaskill – drums, percussion, backing vocals
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